After breakfast we walk northwise for about three miles, passing fabulous architecture as we go, aiming for Parc Güell, a failed residential development and a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site since 1984. One can only imagine Señors Güell y Gaudi had no idea it would become such.
Gaudi is an anathema, a brilliantly talented modernistic architect yet an unassuming catholic servant. His most famous work is of course the Sagrada Familia but he has left a huge legacy all around the greater Catalan area with Barcelona the most beneficial.
The parc is spectacular, initialy intended to be real estate and built between 1900 and 1914, no-one of importance wanted to live so far away from the happening of central Barcelona, so the project failed miserably – of the sixty houses planned only two were built.
Their loss is our gain, and the parc has become yet another fabulous showcase for the acclaimed architect. Walking up between viaducts, under walkways, alongside extraordinary stonework and other contemporary designs.
After the city-wide viewpoint we follow around to the three crosses. A quick stop at the Roman amphitheatre before descending through the pillared Hypostyle chamber and past the salamander. Meanwhile the views across the city are fabulous.
Next we wander back through the Gràcia neighbourhood, first stopping for coffee then continuing to various planned squares, Plaça de Vila, Plaça del Sol and Plaça del Diamant, the latter significant for the poetic endeavours of it’s objectors to the Spanish civil war with a fascinating sculpture entitled doves, the former for it’s 33m tower and equally belligerent residents.
We return to Plaça de Vila for lunch before continuing our walk south, stopping at arguably the next most famous Gaudi creation, Casa Milà which we walked past earlier. An apartment block of some repute, only the wealthiest could live here. We tour the top apartment with its sumptuously appointed rooms, and then head into the vaulted attic to view designs of the architectural triumphs of Gaudi including some models of Sagrada Familia and his other works, including fabulous Arts and Crafts furniture.
Finally we emerge onto the rooftop to finsh the Gaudi experience here, marvelling at this astonishing man’s eclectic works, compete with a fabulous view across to Sagrada Familia.
Moving south again, we pass Casa Batiló another famous Gaudi building, which will have to wait until our next visit to be explored. We continue our walk aiming for the other cable car, which will take us up Montjuïc again, this one more like a ski-lift, we ascend to the Casteil de Montjuïc to take in the views, both over the city and also over the harbourside.
From here we can see all five cruise ships visiting today, totalling 19,340 potential customers, unless any cabins have extra occupants, quite common in the school holidays – nevertheless a reasonably small percentage of the typical 160,000 daily visitors the city receives.
Here we split with our friends Jacs and Mike, they are going to return via cable-car and metro, we are going to walk home. With some satisfaction, and a quirk of technology, we get back to our room before them: only minutes separate us but their room key-card fails and buys us the extra time needed to claim the crown! No I didn’t interfere with the technology.
We meet up in the bar for aperitifs and then head back to our first night’s destination of El Nacional, albeit a different restaurant, this time the Brasserie.
We enjoy tomato bread, Cæsar Salad, Secreto pork, suckling lamb, veal escalope and “allegedly” veal fillet but in reality it was just beef fillet. Oh and a second Cæsar too! The food was exceptional if completely erratic in it’s arrival, no doubt confounded by the kitchen staff spending more time watching the football than acutally cooking!
Afterwards we are directed to the toilets to take in the exhibition of photos from the time the building went from car dealership to simply a parking garage, I missed this from the list of former uses previously.
We walk back through the ghost-town that the area has become this evening, after the insane pre-match hubbub in and around Plaça Catalayun we witnessed, the whole town has gone home, or to bars and hotels, to watch the football.
